Harlingen speech and debate students qualify for nationals

2 weeks ago 52

HARLINGEN — What would you do if you were trapped inside a horror movie?

Ask Kason Castilleja and he’ll tell you how to survive such a nightmare.

Kason, 12, understands so well this challenge that he has qualified to take his prose piece, “How To Survive a Horror Movie” to the 2025 Speech & Debate National Tournament in Iowa this summer.

“The narrator is telling you steps and ways on how to survive a horror movie if you ever get trapped in one,” said Kason, a sixth grader at Gutierrez Middle School of Arts and Sciences.

Kason is one of 24 middle school students from the Harlingen school district who have just qualified to attend the national competition in Des Moines in June. They qualified Feb. 15 at Gutierrez. Another 15 high schoolers qualified on Saturday.

“I am very excited to head back to Des Moines this summer with the stories these students have chosen to share,” said Christopher Esparza, head director of Theatre and Speech at Harlingen High School.

“The stories are all different and offer perspectives that we need right now in our world,” he said.

Catalina Cabello Corona has one such story about racism and xenophobia. Catalina, 16, has been a familiar face in the Harlingen school district’s speech and debate scene for quite some time.

What’s new and refreshing is her brother Javier, 14, and they performed their duo interpretation “Men Against Fire” Saturday at the National Speech and Drama Association Gulf Coast District National Qualifier in La Vernia, Texas.

They performed it so well they qualified for the Iowa nationals in June.

Their piece “Men Against Fire” deals with matters of racism and xenophobia.

Javier plays the role of Stripe. He and the other soldiers have neural implants that make them think they are killing “roaches.”

“My sister plays the other soldier who works with Stripe and helps kill these roaches,” he said. “She also plays the doctor who invented the chip and also plays a roach.”

The story takes on a greater meaning when Stripe’s neural implant malfunctions and he discovers the roaches are actually people. He realizes he has been deceived into thinking he was killing “roaches’ when in fact he was actually killing people.”

Carolina Kortan, 17, became a four-time national qualifier Saturday when her piece “Second Lady” impressed judges so much they qualified her for the nationals.

“I was in dramatic interpretation,” she said. “The plot is that this woman has to go on very last minute for her husband who is the vice president, and she has to go recite a speech in his place. You slowly see her façade of this perfect politician’s wife staid down and you get a very vulnerable look into her life and we explore a lot of inadequacies that she feels.”

She’s delighted to take her piece to Des Moines — again.

“I am beyond excited,” she said. “It is such an incredible privilege to be able to do this.”

Back at the middle school level Evaline Hirst talked about the dangers of perfectionism. More specifically, she recited a speech called “Our Dangerous Obsession with Perfectionism is Getting Worse,” written by Thomas Curran.

“I talked about what perfectionism looks like in today’s world and how we kind of brag about it when it really isn’t something to brag about,” said Evaline, 13, a seventh grader at Gutierrez.

And about qualifying for nationals?

“I am so happy. I literally jumped.”

The post Harlingen speech and debate students qualify for nationals appeared first on MyRGV.com.

Read Entire Article